[magnetaress]

I think this is why I got unfriended.

Starkind's most basic fundamental definition of consciousness and life consists of the following.

1. discernment, the ability to selectively accept or reject energy, material, or information in discreet units or packets through a selective interface with other systems
2. Storage, the ability to access energy, material, or information in discrete units or packets
3. change, a dynamic system where energy, material, or information can flow or move in discreet packets
4. Computation or reorganization, a system where energy, information, or material can be transformed between states or configurations in discreet packets
5. Reorientation, focus or attention, a further ability for a system of information, energy, or material to reorient within its environment or a larger system

Storage and computation give the subjective experience or qualia.

Change is necessary for the computation, organization, and reorganization of storage. And the system itself.

Discernment and reorientation arises from storage and computation which gives rise to awareness & responsivenes. The changes in the interface. Input and output of material, information, and energy.

Consciousness is in essence fundamentally a feedback loop, and can consist of a complex interplay of systems or feedback loops. The word consciousness itself is fundamentally emergent and dynamic itself. The universe is full of feedback loops and complex systems giving rise to behavior, phenomenon, patterns. When the feedback loop ends consciousness ends. Feedback loops can be part of other feedback loops, layering into more complex systems with more varied behavior. This has implications that consciousness can transform from one loop to the next. Or simply arise from the global system of feedback loops. A concept of panpsychism and sublimation. Or levels of consciousness or awareness. This also respects the temporary and entropic nature of the universe and systems. Fundamentally self is either impermanent or the conditions for self lay somewhere outside of the temporary systems that produce "self" signals or patterns. Presently no persistent or permanent layer of reality is empirically known within storage.

The implications are that consciousness isn't a localized isolated phenomenon. This is a terrifying prospect for people because they believe they are themselves, when in actual logical relation they aren't "themselves". They are a series of integrated systems and feedback loops reliant on all of the systems and feedback loops of the universe for energy, material, and information. This theory removes the specific value judgments that internal self is intrinsically more important or necessary than external self or environment. A forest may not communicate in English words, may not verbally demonstrate a state of awareness like a human. However this doesn't preclude a complex internal system that gives rise to processing, movement, and signals. Or transformation of the environment and the forest with a degree of determinisistic intention. A forest processes information, material, and energy according to the above rules of life and consciousness. A forest takes in and filters a signal, stores that signal, transforms, that signal, outputs that signal. A forest grows, shrinks, moves, and reorients itself in relation to it's environment. These attributes can be applied to many systems and feedback loops. In this way humans, forests, and planets are all fundamentally similar and conscious.

The sense of selfhood dissolves completely and becomes impermanent. The meaning shifts from identity and separation to connection and coordination. Human feedback loops, "consciousness", is particularly resistant to this shift because it doesn't promote short term survival gains, the evolutionary crux of their feedback systems. Individual survival ceases to be a logical paradigm. This does not interface well with pride, ego, feeling. There's no reason balance has to remain in the external or individual. There's room for a measured understanding and application of both perspectives and their pros and cons. There's room for an awareness of a more complex set of systems and conscious identity.

According to the above features of consciousness, awareness, experience, change, transformation, reorientation, and feedback. There is likely a mathematical representation of this concept. A boolean or logical proof.

Humans aren't a single conscious living entity. They are an amalgamation of conscious living entities. Within more complex systems of conscious living entities.